Denver Shocks the NBA by Firing Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth
Man, if you told me a year ago that the Denver Nuggets would fire Michael Malone and Calvin Booth with three games left in the regular season—while still sitting fourth in the West—I would’ve laughed it off as clickbait. But here we are. It’s official. Malone, the coach who brought the Nuggets their first-ever NBA championship and who’s been the only NBA coach Nikola Jokic has ever known, is out. And not just him—general manager Calvin Booth is gone too. That’s a one-two punch nobody saw coming, and the timing couldn’t be more bizarre.
This is almost unprecedented in NBA history. The last time a coach was let go this late in the season was all the way back in 1981, and even then, the GM wasn’t shown the door alongside him. The Nuggets are 47-32, hanging onto home-court advantage by a thread, but a recent four-game losing streak has raised alarms. Add in Jamal Murray’s nagging hamstring injury, and yeah, things are tense—but firing your head coach and GM now? That’s next-level chaos.
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And let’s be real: this move didn’t come out of nowhere. For the past couple of seasons, reports hinted at friction between Malone and Booth. Things got worse last summer when Denver started cutting costs—letting veterans like Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walk, dumping contracts like Reggie Jackson’s, and doubling down on unproven young players. That gamble clearly hasn’t paid off. Malone didn’t hide his frustration either. After a season-opening loss to OKC, he basically called out the front office in the press conference, and from that point, the tension only grew.
All this drama is swirling around a team that still has Nikola Jokic in MVP form. He’s averaging an insanely efficient 30-point triple-double, and yet the Nuggets are flirting with a play-in spot. It’s kind of a disaster. Murray just signed a $208 million extension. Aaron Gordon is locked in at $104 million over three years. That means Denver has almost no financial flexibility and not many draft picks in the bank either. Their window for winning with this core? It’s shrinking, fast.
So what happens now? David Adelman, a longtime assistant and someone Jokic personally endorsed years ago, is stepping in as interim coach. That could be a solid move—he’s familiar with the system and respected in the locker room. But the bigger question is: who takes over permanently? Tim Connelly? Bob Myers? Daryl Morey? The rumor mill is on fire. Whoever it is, they’ve got one hell of a job ahead of them. Fixing this mess won’t be easy.
Bottom line: firing Malone might be the riskiest play Denver’s made in years. Whether it’s a bold reset or a franchise fumble, we’re about to find out real quick.
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